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Tell me about your church's music in the assembly?

C

ChurchofChristguy

Member
I have been to plenty of churches in the last few years that are the religious version of "Put'n on the Hits". The whole nine yards.
- Torn jeans and t shirts
- Smoke machines
- Elaborate backdrops and props
- Auditorium blacked out
- Sound systems that blow your head off
- Performers doing all sorts of gyrations with the microphone, raising hands, raising cane

While I shouldn't judge, some of this starts veering toward over the top, and I question what exactly is going on, worship or a concert.

The First Baptist Church here resembles my CoC but only with some subtle instruments - piano, awesome organ, sometimes a fiddle. Mostly the same hymns as my church across the street that we sing acapella. One nice thing about acapella is that things can't get too crazy. I don't foresee a day when we integrate smoke machines in an acapella setting. ;)
 
Reformed1689

Reformed1689

Well-Known Member
We sing hymns. We don't have a pianist or organist so we literally play pre-recorded piano/organ files through a cheap sound system.
 
JonC

JonC

Moderator
Moderator
My church's music is not my preference at all. Typically we have contemporary songs and a couple of hymns (done in a contemporary style). But it is not about me. I like that I can witness a new generation worshiping in truth, even if it makes me feel a bit old.
 
O

OnlyaSinner

Well-Known Member
Site Supporter
We sing hymns, mostly pre-1950 but the newest hymnal edition has some from the current century. Piano accompaniment on Sunday morning, evening and Wednesday sometimes piano, sometimes a capella. There's a small orchestra that varies over time - currently 2 trumpets, 2 violins, flute, psaltery, piano. Offeratory sometimes other instruments but usually piano. Pastor's wife likes the "Hymnworks" arrangements (so do I) that meld classical pieces with hymns - this past week was "Amazing Grace" with Grieg's "Morning Mood."
 
[dormouse sighs]

[dormouse sighs]

New Member
pretty contemporary, but nothing flashy.

we don't do lights, fog, backdrops nothing like that. just a band and singers on the stage. the songs we do range from contemporary songs that came out last month to hymns that were written 200 years ago. The range is really great. The best of the new and the old.
 
Earth Wind and Fire

Earth Wind and Fire

Well-Known Member
Site Supporter
JonC said:
My church's music is not my preference at all. Typically we have contemporary songs and a couple of hymns (done in a contemporary style). But it is not about me. I like that I can witness a new generation worshiping in truth, even if it makes me feel a bit old.
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Ok grandpa :D
 
C

ChurchofChristguy

Member
Reynolds said:
Unfortunately, if you don't stay relevant you may see your church empty. I will not compromise doctrine, but I have no problem modifying style to reach the younger generation.
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Agree totally. I struggle with the assembly becoming a big weekly show, and having to go to increasingly outlandish props and special effects to keep everyone engaged.
 
Reynolds

Reynolds

Well-Known Member
Site Supporter
ChurchofChristguy said:
Agree totally. I struggle with the assembly becoming a big weekly show, and having to go to increasingly outlandish props and special effects to keep everyone engaged.
Click to expand...
Has it not always been that way to a great degree? The difference is the technology explosion simply moves the change at a much faster pace today. I remember when I was a kid, the pastor integrated the cutting edge slide projector into his sermons. When that first electric organ came into the church, it caused no small stir. When we installed our first real sound system, the old people cackled like hens laying double yolked eggs.
 
Danthemailman

Danthemailman

Active Member
My church's music is a mixture of contemporary songs along with hymns. It does include instrumental music, but the sound systems do not blow your head off and there are no smoke machines or disco balls etc.. I once visited a church in which I felt like I was at a hard rock concert and the band there were playing so hard and so loud that I was waiting for Ted Nugent to come swinging down from the rafters and start singing. lol It was too much for me.

I've heard people who attend the church of Christ say that the New Testament is silent on instrumental music, so they simply sing acapella. In Ephesians 5:19, we read -..speaking to one another with psalms, hymns and spiritual songs.." and correspondingly Colossians 3:16 says to, "..admonish one another with psalms, hymns and spiritual songs." The word "psalm" in the Greek dictionary, definition (#5568): "A set piece of music, i.e. a sacred ode (accompanied with the voice, harp, or other instrument)." The root word of psalm is "psallo" which means to means "to twitch, twang or pluck," such as pluck a string of a musical instrument.

Musical instruments, if used with care, can enhance the singing of praise to the Lord. Musical instruments were obviously considered a help to praise in the Old Testament. (Psalm 150:3-4; 2 Chronicles 5:11-14) It seems strange to say that something God thought was a blessing in the Old Testament is now unacceptable in the New Testament church. If the church of Christ (or any other church) wants to leave out musical instruments in their worship, that is their prerogative. But I don't believe that it would be right for anyone to judge other churches who choose to use musical instruments in their assembly.
 
C

ChurchofChristguy

Member
Danthemailman said:
But I don't believe that it would be right for anyone to judge other churches who choose to use musical instruments in their assembly.
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We would do well to avoid judging other Christian churches. Sharing ideas and alternative interpretations is one thing; making arrogant declarations and accusations is quite another.
 
C

ChurchofChristguy

Member
Earth Wind and Fire said:
And what does the younger generation want?
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That is a good question, and a troublesome one. I fear that "church" has become like coffee shops - if you don't like the flavor of one, just move on to another. Church should be much more than about what we do for an hour or two each week. It should be much more than what sort of service pleases us. And it should be much more than whether we "zig" or "zag" on baptism (or pick your pet subject). Just this last month, a family left our church after having been there for over 30 years, over a very slight shift in allowing women to participate a bit more in the assembly. This is after our children have grown up together, many fun trips together, and many life events together - sickness, death, triumphs, and heartaches.

What a tragedy that a man is willing to trade in all of that and venture elsewhere over some liturgical change in the assembly! But I see this all of the time. I think it is the work of the devil. The devil wants to compartmentalize "church" into a little box of do's an don'ts on Sunday morning. If satan can successfully do this, it acts to trivialize the faith and eventually we call the whole thing into question, which is what he ultimately wants.

Above all, church is about family. It's about a support system of fellow believers with whom we share our lives. Trying to find a church where "they 'do' everything right" shouldn't be the goal, because churches are made up of people, who invariably 'do' things wrong. A lot.
 
Covenanter

Covenanter

Well-Known Member
Site Supporter
Reynolds said:
Unfortunately, if you don't stay relevant you may see your church empty. I will not compromise doctrine, but I have no problem modifying style to reach the younger generation.
Click to expand...

What is "relevant" to the younger generation? If I cast my mind back to my teenage years when I joined a Bible class the immediate attraction was simple singable songs & choruses which were a welcome contrast from the formal liturgy & chants of the Church of England. At last I could sing relevant songs & I was converted at 18.

Over the past 60 years our worship has been largely traditional hymns & modern hymns with conventional verses & rhymes - basically easy to play & sing, with tunes that can be remembered & sung unaccompanied - and taken home in heart & mind.

A year ago we moved to a new area & a church with sound Gospel preaching BUT the music is different & I'm not enjoying it. Mostly modern singer/songwriter worship songs written for guitar, projected on a screen & accompanied by a piano, without a song leader.

I''ve always used the music versions of hymnbooks, but you can't do that with a screen. Guitarists write for the instrument & include music between lines, so we don't know when to sing, & there's no way to remember & take home the hymns in memory.

On most occasions when we do have an old hymn we find the tune has been modernised & given a new chorus. But occasionally we have a familiar old hymn which we can really sing with heart & voice.

I can still remember & sing hymns I learnt decades ago but I can't see that happening with modern worship songs with a constantly changing repertory.

I think the church is losing badly with modern worship.
 
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